Tobacco tax hike to add extra Tk 9,200 cr revenue, curb smoking

Speakers at a virtual view exchange meeting on Tuesday opined that increasing tobacco tax will add Tk.  9,200 crore additional revenue from the sale of cigarettes at the same time it will contribute to control tobacco consumption.

The virtual meeting with the members of the Executive Committee of the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) was organized by the Dhaka Ahsania Mission on Tuesday on the issue of the tobacco tax.

The meeting was presided over by Shafiqul Alam, vice-president of Economic Reports Forum.

Iqbal Masud, Director, Health and Wash Sector, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Md. Mostafizur Rahman, Former Chairman, Bangladesh Chemical Industry Corporation (BCIC) and Lead Policy Adviser, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Bangladesh and S M Rashidul Islam, General Secretary, Economic Reports Forum were the speakers in the meeting.

Abdullah Nadvi, Director (Research), Unnayan Shamannay, presented the keynote address at the webinar and Md. Shariful Islam, Project Coordinator, Tobacco Control Project, Dhaka Ahsania Mission conducted the meeting.

According to the keynote, when the Prime Minister set the goal of building a tobacco-free country by 2040 in 2016, she directed to simplify the existing tax structure and increase the government’s customs revenue by learning from the best practices in the region.

It is proposed to increase the price of low-tier cigarettes as a percentage of 28 in FY 2022-23. Because, according to the calculation of the fiscal year 2020-21, the largest part (75 percent) of the total cigarettes sold is low-tier cigarettes.

The possible outcome of the implementation of the proposals is that if the government increases the tobacco tax, the proportion of cigarette users will be 15.1% to 14.03%. 13 lakh adults will quit smoking and 9 lakh young people will stop using cigarettes. Besides, 8 lakh 90 thousand premature deaths can be prevented.

Iqbal Masud, Director, Health and Wash Sector, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, said Bangladesh is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of non-communicable diseases. In addition, tobacco use is considered to be one of the causes of non-communicable diseases.

SM Rashedul Islam, general secretary of the Economic Reports Forum, said the media always focuses on issues that are in line with public health. The media will therefore be by its side as a partner in anti-tobacco activities.

Md. Mostafizur Rahman, former Chairman of Bangladesh Chemical Industry Corporation (BCIC) and Lead Policy Advisor of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Bangladesh, said that the tobacco tax structure in Bangladesh is complex.

Shafiqul Alam, vice-president of the Economic Reports Forum, said, “We also want to see the country tobacco-free.”